Recipe Review: Joy Bauer's Blueberry Banana Muffins

Recipe Review: Joy Bauer's Blueberry Banana Muffins

I love baking, and while I do my best to lighten up many of the sweet nothings I regularly make, there is a such a thing as going too healthy. When I read the recipe for Joy Bauer's blueberry banana muffins, I was stoked because I had three past-their-prime bananas in my fridge waiting to be incorporated into something tasty. When I read the ingredients, including whole wheat flour and oat bran, I should have known that my muffins would not look like the magazine photo. But my inner health nut got the better of me, and I baked away.

To see if my muffins turned out anything like those pictured above, read more.

As you can see, my muffins look nothing like the magazine's. They are not light and fluffy, but rather squat and bumpy.

For some reason the muffins did not rise at all. I used relatively new baking soda and baking powder, so it was not they they were stale. Plus, I followed the directions, filling the muffin tin 3/4 of the way. When I made the recipe, it yielded 12 instead of the six the magazine says. While the muffins are edible, they are just not very tasty. While none will go to waste, I will not be making this recipe again. Have any of you tried this recipe? If so, share your results in the comments section below.

Regarding the photo comparison.. I am a graphic designer and can tell you that we don't use the actual photos of the subject. There is a website we usually use to find photos that fit the content for the subject, in this case, a blueberry muffin recipe needed a photo of blueberry muffins. People often think the photos are the real thing, but in most cases, are not.

5 years

This is too funny! I LOVE the picture comparison! This is what most of my "diet" adventures in cooking look like! I have pretty much learned to work on portion control instead of trying to make fat free "fake" food!!!
Thanks for the morning LOL!

5 years

Maybe use cake flour. And when you add wet mixture to dry, dont fold/mix too much. It will fall and have dense and tough texture.

it's difficult to bake the muffin when you include ingredients like that (the healthy ones) because i remember my aunt and mom once said about those ingredients making the dough heavy and difficult for the cake/muffin to rise

Hi all! I worked directly with Joy Bauer to put together her new book Joy's LIFE Diet. The Banana Blueberry muffin recipe described here is an excerpt from Joy's LIFE Diet. We came across this blog and wanted to let everyone know that we have made a correction to the muffin recipe (the changes are on a short list of tweaks we will be making to future printings of the book). The recipe should use only 2 medium ripe bananas (about 1 cup mashed banana), not 3 bananas. This will make the muffins much lighter and fluffier.
You should make ONLY 6 muffins out of one batch of batter (otherwise, the muffins will be too small). Divide the batter evenly among 6 muffins cups; cups will be nearly full (no need to use liners).
Finally, be very careful not to overmix the batter after adding the flour/bran. Sprinkle the flour/bran mixture on top of the banana mixture and then delicately fold in the flour until it is mostly incorporated. As other posters have mentioned, this will prevent muffins from deflating during the baking process.
If you follow these tips, I am certain you will be pleased with the results. Sorry about the recipe error - please try making them again and let us know what you think!

Hi all! I worked directly with Joy Bauer to put together her new book Joy's LIFE Diet. The Banana Blueberry muffin recipe described here is an excerpt from Joy's LIFE Diet. We came across this blog and wanted to let everyone know that we have made a correction to the muffin recipe (the changes are on a short list of tweaks we will be making to future printings of the book). The recipe should use only 2 medium ripe bananas (about 1 cup mashed banana), not 3 bananas. This will make the muffins much lighter and fluffier. You should make ONLY 6 muffins out of one batch of batter (otherwise, the muffins will be too small). Divide the batter evenly among 6 muffins cups; cups will be nearly full (no need to use liners). Finally, be very careful not to overmix the batter after adding the flour/bran. Sprinkle the flour/bran mixture on top of the banana mixture and then delicately fold in the flour until it is mostly incorporated. As other posters have mentioned, this will prevent muffins from deflating during the baking process.If you follow these tips, I am certain you will be pleased with the results. Sorry about the recipe error - please try making them again and let us know what you think!

sweetpeabrina's right--overmixing muffins (which is really easy to do if you're used to other kinds of baking, because cookies and cakes can really take a beating) causes the gluten in the flour to overdevelop and then the steam has a hard time fighting through the muffin to make the bubbles that makes it fluffy! Instead the muffin just gets tough and doesn't rise.
Sorry it didn't work out!!

sweetpeabrina's right--overmixing muffins (which is really easy to do if you're used to other kinds of baking, because cookies and cakes can really take a beating) causes the gluten in the flour to overdevelop and then the steam has a hard time fighting through the muffin to make the bubbles that makes it fluffy! Instead the muffin just gets tough and doesn't rise. Sorry it didn't work out!!

wackdoodle and Fit--to keep the blueberries from turning the batter grey, toss the blueberries with a tablespoon of flour before you mix them into the batter. I didn't think it would work, but it really does!
I would guess that they turned out so dense because of the low gluten content of the whole wheat flour, too. When I bake muffins, I mix 1/2 whole wheat with 1/2 all-purpose flour to help keep them lighter. I also try not to mix them too much, but I'm guessing it's the flour that's making them so dense. The same thing happens to me when I make bran muffins for that same reason.

wackdoodle and Fit--to keep the blueberries from turning the batter grey, toss the blueberries with a tablespoon of flour before you mix them into the batter. I didn't think it would work, but it really does! I would guess that they turned out so dense because of the low gluten content of the whole wheat flour, too. When I bake muffins, I mix 1/2 whole wheat with 1/2 all-purpose flour to help keep them lighter. I also try not to mix them too much, but I'm guessing it's the flour that's making them so dense. The same thing happens to me when I make bran muffins for that same reason.

Could also be too much of the bananas. I had that problem once with banana bread not rising because I used to many bananas in it. I thought the more bananas the better but it changes the consistency of the dough.

Oh the reason her muffins are flat is simple - overmixing.
The wet and dry should be mixed together then combined and FOLDED together with less than 10 strokes. The batter won't look smooth but when they bake any dry lumps will combine will the wet and the muffins will rise high.
Got that from Joy of Cooking, Martha Stewart, Ina Garten and every other baking pro. Do not overmix your muffin mix or your bake batter unless you want a deflated result.

Oh the reason her muffins are flat is simple - overmixing.The wet and dry should be mixed together then combined and FOLDED together with less than 10 strokes. The batter won't look smooth but when they bake any dry lumps will combine will the wet and the muffins will rise high.Got that from Joy of Cooking, Martha Stewart, Ina Garten and every other baking pro. Do not overmix your muffin mix or your bake batter unless you want a deflated result.

Oh lamicmic - my whole wheat flour doesn't have a rough consistency. I buy the King Arthur brand 100% Whole Wheat naturally whitened flour. It's so smooth that I use it to make cakes for people and they have no idea that it's 100% wheat flour with the germ.

Thank goodness yours came out with a blue tint too. Everytime I make blueberry muffin with fresh blueberries the color always runs. Even if I freeze the fresh berry first or coating the in the dry mix before incorporating them into the wet batter.
I always wonder what the heck these magazines and muffin shops are doing to stop the color bleeding.

Thank goodness yours came out with a blue tint too. Everytime I make blueberry muffin with fresh blueberries the color always runs. Even if I freeze the fresh berry first or coating the in the dry mix before incorporating them into the wet batter.I always wonder what the heck these magazines and muffin shops are doing to stop the color bleeding.

I can tell you why they didn't rise: the recipe calls for all whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour is rough and, long story short, keeps bread, muffins etc. from forming the interior structure needed to make them light and airy. There is a solution though (if you're not gluten intolerant): vital wheat gluten. You can buy it at the grocery store and all you need to do is, before you measure out your flour, drop about 1-1.5 tbsp of it per cup of flour into the measuring cup and fill it to the required amount. I've worked in a bakery for 3 years now and ALL of our whole wheat bread has gluten in it. I take it from work and use it in my baking at home - even spelt bread comes out light and fluffy!
hope this helped :)
ps for a better muffin recipe, check out Rose Reisman's stuff - healthy and amazing!

I can tell you why they didn't rise: the recipe calls for all whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour is rough and, long story short, keeps bread, muffins etc. from forming the interior structure needed to make them light and airy. There is a solution though (if you're not gluten intolerant): vital wheat gluten. You can buy it at the grocery store and all you need to do is, before you measure out your flour, drop about 1-1.5 tbsp of it per cup of flour into the measuring cup and fill it to the required amount. I've worked in a bakery for 3 years now and ALL of our whole wheat bread has gluten in it. I take it from work and use it in my baking at home - even spelt bread comes out light and fluffy!hope this helped :)ps for a better muffin recipe, check out Rose Reisman's stuff - healthy and amazing!